Best 4k Projector – Reviews of 4k Home Theater and Movie Projectors for Sale

List of the Best Available 4k Projectors for either a Home Theater, Movies or other Entertainment Available for Sale.Latest Update: November 16, 2017

Top 5 Highest Rated 4K Projectors

4k Projector

Description

Ratings and Reviews

1. Sony VPLVW350ES 4k Home Theater/Gaming Projector

Get the clarity of Sony's SXRD 4K movie theater technology in a brand new 4K Ultra HD projector with greater than 4x 1080p resolution, anamorphic 3D, and HD to 4K upscaling. With additional installation flexibility you can experience immersive 4K media in an array of rooms. Only from Sony.

Experience Sony"s most immersive, awe-inspiring home theater with the Sony 4K projector featuring SXRD 4K movie theater projector technology. Delivering greater than four times 1080p resolution, anamorphic 3D, and HD to 4K up scaling, nothing else comes close to the Sony VPL-VW1100ES Projector. No detail was left out-including easy installation and control.

The DLA-X500R delivers stunning picture detail at an unprecedented value thanks to JVC's exclusive 4K e-shift3 technology which accepts Native 4K 60P through the 4K enabled HDMI inputs and up-converts existing 1080P sources to 4K. The three discrete DILA devices in the DLA-X500R produce a stable image with no flicker and a class leading 60,000:1 Native Contrast Ratio for peak whites and deep blacks.

4K Projector: Everything you Need to Know – Reviews

4K technology is the big thing making the rounds of the entertainment display world right now, but unlike your typical buzzword jargon, it’s something serious and experiencing serious technological development as well as sales fundamentals.

4K is the word used to define a resolution count that’s at least 4 times larger than the much more conventional Full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels that we’ve all become so used to. Currently, the most common 4K resolution consists of 3,840 x 2160 pixels but can also vary considerably and include resolutions of 4096 × 2160p or 3996 × 2160 pixels. The bottom line with regards to 4K is that it must have at least 4 times the total pixel count of normal 1080p HD resolution.

Formally speaking however, the Digitial Cinematic industry standard for 4K is defined as being 4096 x 2160 pixels at a 1.9:1 aspect ratio. This most frequently applies to 4K cameras and to many True 4K projectors like many of the Sony models we’ve covered above.

In the midst of all this development, the three most important gadgets that are emerging from the development of 4K are TVs, cameras and projectors. Here we’re going to focus on projectors and give you a solid rundown of everything you need to know if you’re thinking of buying one of your own.

Let’s get started.

What’s a 4K Projector Anyways?

Just as their name implies, 4K projectors are home entertainment digital cinema systems that offer you the ability to project either photo or video content onto any vertical or even upside down blank space in your home or office. The main difference between 4K projectors and conventional home theater HD projectors is that the former offer far sharper 3,840 x 2160 pixel resolution and usually also include a whole host of beefed up visual rendering features that cheaper HD projectors simply don’t have.

In essence, what 4K projectors give you is the ability to take your regular HD TV or video content and any native 4K content (such as movies) you have and project them onto your house walls at any one of a number of flexible projection (read screen) sizes. These can range from just 55” inches in diagonal width to a whopping 300” inch home theater sized image that feels almost exactly like a mini home theater.

What’s the Difference between Getting a Projector and a TV?

Aside from the obvious differences in design and setup, a 4K projector and 4K TVs differ mainly in price and overall quality. With a projector, you’re investing in a genuinely designed home theater system by the classical definition of such and the cost of these machines reflects that. Almost across the board, 4K projectors will definitely cost you more than their TV counterparts and often have price tags that are several times higher than those of even a very high priced Samsung or Sony 4K TV.

However, despite their price, what UHD projectors offer over UHD TVs is a distinctly flexible setup that allows you to install them in much smaller spaces than many TVs, adjust their screen size to any one of a number of ranges and of course move them much more easily since instead of weighing the 90+ pounds that a larger 4K TV weighs, they usually only heft out at 25 pounds or so. For example, the Sony 4K Ultra Short Throw Projector is designed in such a way that it can be slotted up against any wall and project its image directly above itself, thus letting it fit into even the narrowest living space assuming it contains at least 65” diagonal inches of wall.

Finally, in terms of image quality, what you’ll get with your projector is absolutely outstanding. These machines are designed with resolution and image rendering features that totally leave things such as hazy visuals and faded projections behind (via alsobrooksource). They deliver a visual clarity that is at least as good as or possibly even better than that of their TV counterparts, it’s certainly less prone to physical damage to the internal screen components, since there aren’t any.

What is a 4K Projector Going to Cost Me?

4K projectors suffer from the one major detriment of not being cheap at all. High grade consumer projectors that currently exist on the market easily cost at least $10,000 USD and some such as the Short Throw Projector from Sony mentioned above will cost you well above $35,000 USD. These gadgets are still in the price range of serious, affluent home theater lovers, but they definitely deliver an enormous bang for their buck.

Update: April 3,2016 – Sony still dominates the consumer home entertainment 4K projector market with models that cost close to or above $10,000 but one relatively new alternative option that’s now on the market for a much more attractive price than what we’ve previously seen can be found in the form of the JVC DLAX500R 4K Home Theater Projector, which we’ve reviewed here. This model offers much of the same connectivity and content viewing at a smooth 60Hz as Sony’s models but it costs only $3,971.

This is a remarkably low price in this highly rarified market.However, take note that the JVC model is not a true 4K projector and instead relies on what JVC calls “e-shift” upscaling technology to generate a 4K resolution. Currently, the cheapest true 4K projector for the consumer market is the Sony VPLVW350ES 4K 3D SXRD Home Theater Projector. It also offers true DCI 4K at 4096 x 2160 pixels.

UHD vs 4K, What’s the Difference?

In the simplest terms possible, there is usually no practical difference as far as your buying on the consumer market is concerned. 4K and UHD are used interchangeably by most home theater manufacturers and if you see either applied to a TV or projector, you’re also looking at a 4K device or display.

Formally however, 4K specifically signifies an industry resolution standard of 4096 x 2160 pixels. This is called DCI 4K and is the what most cinematic 4K projection technology uses. More common resolutions of 3,840 x 2160 pixels like those found in 4K TVs are called 4K ultra HD and nearly identical as far as visual similarities are concerned. UHD on the other hand is a more general term that can be used to describe resolutions that are smaller than 4K but still two or three times larger than normal Full HD AT 1,920 X 1,080 pixels or it can also be used to describe still experimental mega 8K resolutions of 7680×4320 pixels or more!

Content for 4K Projectors

The same content that can be viewed on any 4K TV can also be viewed on 4K projectors. They come with full connectivity for satellite, broadband, internet and cable transmissions, just like a modern TV and can also be connected to devices that play DVD or other recording media.

However, just as is the case with UHD TVs, the amount of native 4K content that’s publicly available is growing all the time. Companies such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Instant Video, Hulu, Vudu and numerous others are offering streaming native 4K versions of their shows House of Cards and Breaking Bad and broadcasters such as the BBC as well as others in Japan are beginning to experimentally roll out widespread 4K broadcasting over their broadband channels. There is also a new 4K UHD content streaming service from Sony that’s being rolled out and expanded in 2016. Given that most true 4K consumer home theater projectors are in fact Sony models, it is likely that this particular source of streaming media will be compatible with Sony’s own projection technology.

Two main sources of content come to mind here. The first is Sony’s own still very decent FMP X10 4K UHD media player. This device can be used to access the massive Sony Pictures home video library of downloadable 4K movies and in fact comes preloaded with a few selections out of the box. The FMP X10 can be hooked up to your projector for VOD 4K content from Sony’s selection of more than 500 hours of content.

Next and definitely not least on our list of 4K projector content options, there is 4K ultra HD Blu-ray media. 4K Blu-ray players and discs have both emerged in early 2016 to be an excellent source of 4K video with HDR for users who want a more robust content clarity experience or simply don’t have the internet connectivity for accessing streamed 4K media. The selection of 4K UHD Blu-ray titles is growing regularly and now includes pretty much all major new Hollywood releases once they go on sale from the Big Screen. 4K UHD Blu-ray players are also available from Philips, Samsung and Panasonic. All three model types can be hooked up to any of the 4K projectors listed on this page.

Bear in mind though that 4k is stil taking off, so content will indeed become much more available in the next few years.

Another benefit of every major brand of home entertainment 4K projector is that it possesses an internal upscaling engine that will dramatically enhance the viewing of conventional HD content on your screen, so while you wait for the probably inevitable 4K expansion of entertainment options, you can still enjoy even better than normal Full HD.

We should also mention some specifics of connectivity that you need to keep in mind if you’re going to get a 4K projector as your primary home entertainment technology. Just like a 4K TV, it needs to have the essential connection technologies built into it for accessing the latest 4K streaming and media player content in ultra HD. This means a projector with HDMI 2.0 ports, HDCP 2.2 compatibility in these HDMI ports and, crucially, HEVC decoding capability. If your projector also comes with a DisplayPort 1.2 connection, you’re even better off for hooking it up to PC gaming at 4K resolutions.

Should I buy a 4K Projector?

If you really want the best in home entertainment and want it to be ready for the 4K future, then yes, projectors are quite possibly the best product on the market today. If however your budget is a lot tighter than their costs, then you’re much better off simply going for a 4K TV. It offers the same visual quality at a much smaller price and your only major sacrifice will be the exquisitely large display space which a projector offers.

The term 4K refers to the DCI specification, which 4096×2160 pixels. There is no 3840 dimension in the DCI spec. UHD is the 16×9 consumer format. DCI is 17×9 and about 9% more pixels. If we nitpick, we would also point out that 4K is 24fps, not 23.976fps. A clear distinction exists between UHD and 4K.

This comment reminds me of six minute abs versus seven minute abs.(something about that movie lol…). Both practices are accomplishing the same goal just a minute apart, or frame apart, non- technically speaking.
2160k is the common denominator we tv retailers reference, so both of you are right, however in the consumer level, 4K is misappropriately used at 3840×2160 opposed to the dci 4096×2160 Specification (digitalpreservation.gov).
But the term 4K perhaps has better explanation to the uneducated buyer trying to figure why UHD is better scientifically, than their older 1080p tv; another words, should dad(or mom) fork out the extra few bucks for his kids to get a worthwhile experience?
Thus, the 4K term is more appealing and understanding to dad and consumers alike, when deciding if the upgrade from 1080p or “i”, is actually worth it. With that said, UHD actually expands on frames per second, color gamut and not without forgetting lumens(screen or pixel brightness) per article in televisions.reviewed.com, so, ironically UHD is BETTER overall than the Dci/dcmd standard. Recently, now there is an UHD alliance aimed at defining these enhancements, per CES 2015.*
Furthermore, the sales person is the person that will explain these differences to the potential customer and keep us up to speed on the tv advertising lingo, and newer technology. So, instead of wasting time shopping online all the time we should go see our sales peoples’ who need customers to keep them busy so the retail stores stay alive, bestbuy has some really informed manufacture reps that work weekends and a delightful sales force that also keep us informed and believing in our product. if they are new, us fellow techies can part our knowledge along to the new folks.

With that said, get off the computer and shop “physically” so We all can make America great again! And, No I am not endorsing any candidacy in this comment, : ) just wanting to see retailers survive. As a retail rep stuck in the online battle for consumers. #stopyoutubing & #inpersonisthebestexperience . So burn some gas or maybe ride the bike up to the store and trailer that tv back, or maybe just ask for delivery. The end of my thoughts.

Oh, and yes, after years of battling the online versuses instore price I’d rather pay the extra few bucks to get it same day without the hassle on our overworked ups and fed ex drivers. Just saying.

Digitalperservation.gov
Bestbuy.com
Sony.com
Extremetech.com
All sites accessed 6/18/2016.
Note:format may not meet apa style format, apologies to my college teachers and educators alike. Still have love for ya’all.

Just out of curiosity do any of you recall how the late retailer Montgomery Ward sold his first television sets?

Hi there,
What is your opinion on these Chinese SJY USB3 4K DLP projectors going on ebay for about £400?
Are they really 4K and are they any good?
The prices are amazing so I expect that there may be some major limitations.

Quite frankly, they won’t compare with the Sony true 4K projectors we’ve reviewed on our projector page. For one thing, the very newest of the Sony projectors even offer HDR integration, but even the most basic of them are offering genuine native 4K resolution. The models you’re referring to don’t do this, they basically upscale internally generated Full HD visuals to create a sort of pseudo 4K effect. I can’t speak for their overall quality since we haven’t reviewed any of these but I suspect that in terms of actual luminance, bulb life etc, they’re inferior to the Sony true 4K models.

I guess the key thing here is whether the obvious likely compromise in quality is still a reasonable choice as a fill-in until the outrageously expensive Sony prices come down to something more affordable to the man in the street. Unfortunately I cannot find a review of them anywhere on the net and am not quite prepared to take the risk of buying a possible turkey, even if Christmas is not far off! I am hoping that seeing as how the Chinese market for 3D 4K is expanding so rapidly, then maybe any glitches with these machines will be ironed out early and someone will do a serious review.

I’ve also noted some unusually low priced “4K” projectors on eBay and on Amazon — but be careful, because they’re trying to fool you with misleading marketing material. The projectors in question are typically in the sub-$1000 US price bracket, and when you look closer at the tech specs, you’ll find that they apparently have *input* support for UHD/4K content, but a *native* output resolution of much less then that, usually not even as high as 1080p. As noted in the article, native 4K projectors are all still in the multi-thousand dollar price ranges, at present.

Hi there Art. it would depend on which projector you’re talking about. native 4K models offer full true 4K resolution with their projection sensors and some of the upscaled 4K models do indeed offer upscaling to 2K for native 4K signals or even pixel-shifted 4K (a full 8.29 million pixels but shifted back and forth between rapidly in a fixed 2K set of pixels.

I am looking for a projector for around about $1300 just wondering if you could recommend any for me? What i will be usinging it for is a xbox one i would like quality min to be 1080p please, high fps if possible, thank you

Better off getting the 3010 and doing the firmware flash to the 5010 like I did. Can prob do the same with the newer models as well. But even had the motors and gears and mine for the lcd adjustment etc. My buddy who bought the 5010 was so pissed off seeing me do this saving like 3 grand.

Ditto on the other reply, I’ve been using an Epson 2200 now for many years and even today it still blows me away how good it is. Excellent projectors. It has many thousands of hours on it over an approx 6 years.

Hello there Kyle, 4K projectors and especially some of the newer Sony HDR 4K projectors definitely offer excellent display quality if they’re used under the right conditions of darkness and smooth projection surface. I’d argue that some of them are even superior to many a large non-4K TVs in how well they deliver content for entertainment. As for a 4K model that costs less than $3,000, this is not yet possible in a genuine 4K prjector. The most affordable model on the market now is Sony’s VPL 320ES, which offers spectacular picture quality but still costs a little under $8,000.
Our review of it here: http://4k.com/projector/a-review-of-the-sony-vpl-vw320es-4k-projector/

You can however go for one of JVC’s pseudo 4K E-shift 4K projectors which upscale what is actually Full HD technology to something that looks more like 4K. This is a good model and costs a bit closer to your stated budget at just under $4,000: http://4k.com/projector/jvc-dla-x500r-4k-projector-review/

One of the biggest mistakes people make when purchasing 4k projectors is not to pair it with a textureless projector screen.
The small size of a 4k pixel (4x smaller than 1080p) doesn’t fully envelop the texture (as the pixel is now smaller than the texture) causing distortion to the pixels geometry.

Aren’t all of these projectors made in China? Why would it matter if you bought a Chinese knockoff? They all share information about design and construction as it is (believe me, I worked a contract with GE in China for 2 years. The amount of espionage and trade secret sharing was astounding. And YES, there are stores there that look and sell devices that you would easily mistake for Apple).
Seems to me it all about your personal preference. I could buy a 14K projector to watch a movie and treat my eyes to picture clarity that visually I would not be able to discern anyway. Or I could buy a Chinese brand, which I did while I was there, that worked amazingly well for 2 years with the same clarity and quality I expect from the high end brands. Btw, once I got back to the States, I purchased an Optoma HD 1080p (HD50), that lasted about 5 months before the bulb went out, then the fan, and then the replacement bulb did not seat correctly so I basically wasted $1500. I wish I kept the one I had in China. 🙁 Its up to you on deciding what you like. Personal preference. I have had high quality products, as well as, low quality ones break on me because in the end, they are all pieces of machinery that can fail at any time for any reason.

I got a question. I noted that cables with specifications on HDMI 2.0 only guaranteed its perforamce if its length is short, say 3m. But the source leading to projector is usually pretty far. How do we resolve this? Do we need HDMI 2.0 cable for such 4k projectors?

Hello there Juan. This is a tricky question to answer since Sony’s total dominance of the native consumer 4K projector market still mostly holds firm. However, for the first time ever, JVC released a native 4K projector at CEDIA 2016, the DLA-RS4500. This model is fantastically expensive at over $30,000 but it also comes with some insane cutting-edge specs that put even some of Sony’s best models to shame. The more important point however is that a second player is now offering consumer native 4K projectors and in a couple years at most I predict that we’ll see JVC in particular unveiling native 4K models with prices similar to those of their much cheaper e-Shift projectors of today, and with HDR.

For now, I have to argue that for most home entertainment, if you want a decent price, the simulated 4K of Epson and JVC models with HDR delivers some truly superb picture quality even if it’s not true 4K. The HDR makes a huge difference and one great example of this is Epson’s 6040UB, which was voted best projector of 2016 at CEDIA last year. It costs between $3000 and $4000.

Hey there Rory, 4K projectors are fully capable of 4K gaming and generally pull it off with solid results. We’ve seen input lags of between 30 and 17ms in occasions where we’ve experienced console gaming and projector combos.

Any chance we can get a new rundown here? It’s been about a year and the marketplace has changed in 4k projectors with TI’s new DLP chip and all the lower prices offerings its spurred. I’m in the market for on of these range of projectors and would love to see a new list or breakdown. Maybe a high end and lower end offering best of.

Hey there Bob. We’re working on a number of new projector reviews as models become available and this page will be updated with new information and updated ratings based on them in the next couple of weeks. Please check back within a week or two.

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